Blooming of the Cherry Blossom!
by echo42
Summary: In which Sakura is the protagonist and everything immediately falls apart. The story will have snark, summons, and S-Rankers! Stay tuned for the next exiting installment of...Blooming of the Cherry Blossoms!


The Chunin Exams sucked. Hard.

Seriously. I have no idea what Kakashi-sensei was thinking when he let us sign up. We'd been genin for, like, two months. Tops.

Kakashi-sensei is a legitimate crazy person, a badass he may be, but he still reads porn in public. And he _giggles._ Crazy person.

Naruto experiences a different reality from everyone else, it's the only explanation for him and his…shenanigans. It's like he got everything he knows about being a ninja from _Gutsy Shinobi,_ Naruto is made of 20% monologues and 40% orange 30% Pranks and 19% Failing at Math. Oh, and he has enough chakra to throw out Shadow Clones like confetti, he's twelve by the way. Crazy person.

And Sasuke, well Sasuke was pretty, and he had that whole broody avenger thing going on. But, he's crazy. Like, train fifteen hours a day crazy because he has to kill his S-Ranked missing nin brother. Uchiha Itachi. Who was, by the way, the guy who _massacred_ the entire Uchiha clan in one night…the clan of NINJA POLICE WITH MAGIC EYES! Uchiha Itachi was a monster, in every sense of the word, and Sasuke wanted to fight him. Admirable, but crazy. Hot, but crazy. Uchiha Sasuke, crazy hot person. Or something like that.

And rounding off this train wreck of a team was me, Haruno Sakura. Sane person.

Currently chasing after the giant snake that swallowed my orange teammate. It was just that kinda day.

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The Forest of Death was a spooky place. Not just because of the name and general ambiance, no, there were monsters in the forest. Strait up monsters. The First Hokage was…pretty much the closest thing to a deity the ninja of Konoha had. And if the First Hokage says he wanted to build a scary death forest for "training purposes," well, nobody argued with the guy who could just, you know, _do that._

Thus, Konoha has a scary death forest. With monsters. Because the First Hokage was a scary sumbitch.

And so, the Field of Generally Friendly Rabbits became the Forest of Death, and the First was pleased.

While giant snakes swallowing people wasn't exactly _unexpected,_ it did come as a rather nasty shock when, one minute I was yelling at Naruto for being an idiot, I forget the details but that's probably accurate, and the next, there was a rush of wind and scales and screaming and bam. I was sprawled out inelegantly on the forest floor, Naruto was in a snake, and Sasuke was…somewhere.

Senju Damned Chunin Exams.

LINEBREAK

I stood up quick and brushed myself off, I may have just fallen a good fifteen meters, but I _am_ a ninja, no matter what Ino says. Chakra is weird like that.

I was only able to catch a fleeting glimpse of red scales before it vanished into the trees.

Screw that noise, I was a kunoichi of Konoha, and we were in a forest. I wasn't as fast as Sasuke, or probably even Naruto, but we were in a _forest._ If I couldn't catch up to a giant snake that had just swallowed my _teammate_ in a _forest,_ I should probably turn in my hitai-ate now and save Kakashi-sensei the trouble.

We Konohans had strong feelings about maneuverability in forests. That was like, a solid quarter of the Academy.

Even with my less than stellar abilities (although, to be fair, I am pretty above average for a genin, screw off Ino, you're hair looks dumb anyway, how do you even _see?_ ) I caught up to the giant snake in moments.

The Konoha Shinobi Field Guide (14th Edition) had this to say on combating giant animals: Exploding Tags.

We Konohans loved our Field Guides, (twelve editions were written by the Third, he'd been around for a while now) they make things so simple.

Kunai plus exploding tag equals a bad day to be a giant snake. I was right above the beast, clinging to the bark of a tree like gravity was a filthy lie. It was two meters below me, a blind man could make the shot. I quickly tied off the tag to the handle of a kunai. I pulsed my chakra into the tag and watched as the rice paper started to spark.

I looked down at the thing, and took a shaky breath. It was massive. I called it a giant snake, but that was hardly doing this thing justice. This thing was longer than my _house,_ and the Haruno's were pretty well off. Gleaming red scales coated ropes of muscle, I had no doubt that thing could rip a tree, a Konoha tree, in half just by wrapping and constricting. And there, I saw a bulge in the middle of it, a bulge that was stubbornly refusing to be digested. A bulge that was punching and kicking for all it's worth.

Naruto.

The sparks on the tag had burned down low, there were mere moments before it detonated. With a throw that was probably overkill, I hurled the kunai at the eye of the beast, hoping to avoid those arrowhead sized scales.

'Miracle of miracles, Sakura hit her target.' No matter what Kakashi-sensei says, mental snark is best snark.

The snake reared back in unexpected agony as the kunai lodged in its eye, but only for an instant.

Kakashi-sensei had said something about rules, and teammates, and trash when we first became Team 7, I forgot most of it, but that bit about not abandoning your teammates. That stuck. Naruto was annoying and more than a little bit nuts, but he was my teammate. And a girl didn't just leave her teammates behind. That was A Bad Thing. Besides, I knew Naruto would do the same for me. He may be a crazy idiot, and probably a pervert, but he was a good person.

Which is why, when the tag went off, and the snake poofed into smoke, I didn't assume that this was an elaborate prank Naruto engineered to make me say I liked him or some such nonsense. Really. I didn't.

I certainly didn't threaten to do the same kunai trick to every Naruto-shaped thing I came across on the off chance they were shadow clones. Honest.

So, since I am such a good and caring teammate, I immediately reached the correct conclusion, and didn't spend several moments staring dumbly at the fading chakra smoke.

I immediately realized it wasn't a prank. I knew that snake wasn't one of Naruto's shadow clones under a henge. I remembered that when a giant animal goes poof, it means a summoning matrix has been interrupted.

I remembered that summoned creatures don't die when they poof, they only return where they came from.

I remembered the snake. Too big to be natural, bright red, slitted yellow eyes. I remembered Naruto, trapped in the thing's belly, probably scared out of his mind but still fighting, still alive.

I came to the realization immediately, because that's what good teammates do. I realized Naruto was inside the snake when it poofed, and now they both were gone.

I realized I had just banished Naruto to the Summons Domain, and that wherever the snake came from, it would go back there. The snake would go back where it came from, with Naruto tagging along for the ride.

I looked down, the ground was much closer. Oh. I had fallen to my knees at some point. My stomach turned violently, I spit out the bile, and clenched my teeth to fight the force of the vomit. I couldn't sit around here barfing, I had to…

I had to…

What could I do, duh! Kakashi-sensei! He had those dog summons, the ones that helped him fight Zabuza. He had to be familiar with the rules and stuff for Summons, Kakashi-sensei would know what to do.

I rose up on shaky legs and looked around. I had to get out of this forest, report to Kakashi-sensei, and save Naruto. Easy-cheesy.

Wait.

I was missing something.

Something, painfully, blaringly obvious…

Where the hell was Sasuke?

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Running through the Forest of Death was surprisingly calming when you were focused on running. I very carefully didn't think about the giant snakes or the giant bears or the giant tigers or how I had just damned my teammate to a horrible snake infested pit of suffering and despair or the giant bugs.

Very calming. I could do yoga here.

I retraced my steps to the tree we were standing on, gravity is for chumps, when the snake appeared. As I slowed down, I realized there might be a small issue.

I looked at the pitiful remain of the tree, turned my head and tried not to gape like a fish. I realized I was, impossibly, a very lucky girl.

Because when I looked _that way_ I saw that most of _that way_ was kindling. Tiny, tiny kindling.

A ray of desolation cut through the otherwise pristine forest, hundred year old trees blown apart, in casual defiance of the First's favored training ground.

Oh.

Oh Shit.

Being the good teammate that I am, I immediately reached the proper conclusion.

Someone wanted someone dead, maybe? Naruto was eaten by a snake summons. A hundred meters of forest was just _gone._ And Sasuke was nowhere to be found.

You could hear the little Sakura in my head ringing a bell. The pieces came together. The only known signer of the Snake Contract, a person with a famous interest in kekkei genkai (of which the Sharingan was one), and somebody who would rank the annihilation of a good bit of forest as a wise choice of jutsu.

Sannin Orochimaru was in the forest. The greatest traitor in the history of Konoha.

Under the circumstances, my freaking out was completely justified. Honestly.

LINEBREAK

I remember hearing stories about the Sannin back at the academy, the Gallant Jiraiya, the Princess Tsunade, and the Traitor Orochimaru. We studied them in the academy, their tactics, their philosophies, and their jutsu. They were like heroes out of a manga to us when we were younger.

All three were the students of the Third Hokage, all three are powerful enough to lay waste to cities.

Being S-Ranked is kind of a Big Deal. Konoha only has three, the Third Hokage, Jiraiya, and Tsunade.

Three S-Ranked ninja out of damn near two thousand nin. Thankfully, the other villages aren't much better off in that regards.

Generally, S-Ranked shinobi go down one of three career paths, becoming the Kage of their village, become a wandering hermit only tied to their village nominally, or a living weapon for their village.

We have one Kage and two hermits. We had a weapon, but then he became the Lord Forth. Boy did Iwa crap themselves when that happened. If a single S-Ranked Shinobi is enough to ensure a village isn't immediately wiped off the map, having Namikaze Minato as your Hokage makes your village all but undefeatable. Well, undefeatable to everything that isn't a ten story demon fox. But even then, the Forth Hokage took the demon with him. S-Rankers are scary sons of bitches.

The general standing orders for dealing with S-Rank shinobi was first outlined in the Konoha Shinobi Field Guide (6th Edition).

Run. Seriously, just Run.

And that's not even enemy S-Ranked shinobi, that's for allies. Running is the best bet to get away from the "friendly fire." For hostile S-Rankers, the Field Guide says only this, "Pray they don't want you dead."

Helpful, isn't it.

And here I was, chasing after one teammate who was probably getting murdered by the Traitor at this very moment, and my other teammate was banished into the Summon Realm, so I was alone.

Damn Chunin Exams.

Sasuke was easy to find, I just followed the path of destruction. Only a Sanin could do this kind of damage.

Hundred year old trees, Four meters wide, uprooted in a single jutsu. Not even an Earth jutsu! Wind! The trees weren't even cut apart, they were ripped up, the roots were in the air! The amount of pressure that jutsu must have exerted…it was inhuman.

But that would sum up Orochimaru of the Sannin pretty well, wouldn't it.

I sensed him before I saw him.

The Sannin's chakra was like being strangled by a doctor with icy hands, it was filled with an almost surgical curiosity. I was no chakra sensor, but the amount of chakra pressure that was simply _bleeding_ off him was enough to send chills down my spine. I shivered. I would have to be an idiot to not feel that kind of chakra that close, he wasn't even pretending to hide himself. A real sensor could probably tell everything from what he ate for breakfast (probably puppies) to how he took his steak (still mooing) just from the slightest sniff of his chakra. I couldn't do that. I could tell this, he was scary. Helpful, isn't it.

I continued sprinting through the new clearing until I saw them.

The Traitor's back was facing me, he was just standing there, staring at something? Was that Sasuke! Yes, I could see Sasuke huddled up against a tree, red Sharingan eyes spinning madly. He had a hand clutching his neck, was he injured?

I didn't try to throw a kunai at the Sannin, and I certainly didn't bull-rush him like Naruto would have done. I knew that would do no good. The only reason I was currently breathing, was because Orochimaru the Traitor permitted it. And didn't that just _burn._

I took a step closer and cleared my throat, he was twenty meters away and that was still far too close for comfort.

"O-Orochimaru," I said, my mouth barely forming the name through my terror.

Then I felt it. It was as if gravity noticed me for the first time. Invisible _pressure_ pushed me down to the firm forest floor, I fell to my hands and knees. I could feel the bile rush up my throat again.

This-this wasn't even _killing intent,_ it was just chakra pressure. And still, it was so much worse than Zabuza. There was no comparison, Orochimaru was a mountain, and Zabuza was just an angry pebble.

I heard him breathe out a small little laugh, I shivered again, and spit up more bile.

"Little kunoichi, so far from home." He said. My eyes were planted firmly on the ground, all rational thought fled me, he was the predator, and I was prey. I wanted to run, to leave Sasuke and just _get out._

But I couldn't. Not just because there was an S-Ranked beast of a man who probably wouldn't let me, I couldn't leave my teammate behind. Heh, besides, if facing down a Sannin doesn't get Sasuke to like me, nothing will.

My consciousness retreated into the warm hearth of my chakra. I let it fill me up, granting strength to my limbs, and to my mind. Chakra is both physical and mental, you can't have one without the other. Strengthening your body is easy enough, but seeing through the confidence your chakra grants you, that takes another type of strength.

But baseless bravado is exactly what I needed right now.

I curled my splayed hands into fists, digging into the cool earth as I did. I pushed up.

Shakely, I rose to my knees, and with another flare of my chakra, to my feet. At this moment, standing was the most difficult thing I'd ever done. Feeling a little giddy off of pumping so much chakra through myself so fast, I had the stones to stare into the Sannin's eyes.

He obviously wasn't pleased.

On Team Seven's disastrous mission to Wave Country, I had to quickly learn a few very vital skills, and dealing with the killing intent of a powerful enemy was one of the more useful ones I picked up.

At this moment, it was useless.

I was a bug.

I was a bug and Orochimaru was the _sun._ It was only the faintest flickers of killing intent, but it still damn near made me wet myself.

The Traitor looked at me, I was on the ground, vomiting uncontrollably, and probably pissing myself, not that I would ever admit to such a thing.

He spoke, "Girl," his voice was barely above a whisper. But I heard it, and I couldn't help but listen.

"You're teammate is very sick. You will take care of him this night. Do not let him die." I raised my head off of the forest floor, wood chips that were once mighty trees stuck to my skin. His serpentine eyes pinned me to the ground better than any kunai ever could. His lips turned up into a slight smile, and, for a moment, I saw the man he once was, the man who could have been Hokage. The illusion broke. He was a monster wearing the face of a man, I knew this. I'd known this since the third day at the Academy, when we learned about the heroes of Konoha. We were told stories about the Hokages, the Sannin, the White Fang, the Ino-Shika-Cho, and the other legends of their days.

We learned about Orochimaru. He was a snake, I knew that. I knew he would try to beguile and charm everyone he came across. It was his nature.

His chakra pressure receded like the tide, like it was never there at all. I looked at him, confused.

And then he was gone.

No puff of smoke, no dissolving into mud, nothing. Just absence. I sat there for a beat, mind reeling.

And then I moved, one teammate was missing, and the other was injured. I could only help one right this second, so I put my focus to it.

Sasuke was leaned up against a tree, Sharingan eyes spinning, recording everything in front of him, even if he wasn't aware enough to process it.

His eyes were unfocused, well, as unfocused as the Sharingan can be. One hand was pressed tight against his neck, the other hung loose by his side. He was in shock.

We couldn't stay here. The term 'sitting ducks' came to mind. There's no way anyone in the vicinity could ignore the amount of chakra that was filling the air.

I slung Sasuke onto my back, if what the Traitor said was true, I needed to get to somewhere I could take care of him, because he'd be having a rough night.

LINEBREAK

Running through a forest filled with monsters and ninja-children who all wanted to kill me with my fever ridden, unconscious teammate was not the best way to spend an evening. Sasuke's forehead was pressed up against my neck, it was not nearly as romantic as it sounded. He was sweating more fluid than a person could drink in a day, and he was hot enough to melt a block of ice with his face. Hmm, that's not exactly unusual for him though, heh.

Finding sanctuary was tough. All the good spots, the caves, the tree roots, and the like were all previously clamed. By the aforementioned monsters.

So I settled for a not-so-good spot. A small cave that exited into a small clearing. Not exactly bad, but a little too exposed for comfort.

I laid Sasuke down deep in the cave, thankfully it was nice and cool. He could use it, that fever was becoming worrisome. I moved his hand to see if he was bleeding from the neck.

He wasn't. I almost wished he was.

Orochimaru had to have put some strange fuinjutsu on him. Word to the wise, don't screw with seals. They have a bad habit of exploding. Or imploding. Or summoning some eldritch being from the far side of the Summons Domain. Basically, seals are weird and you shouldn't screw with them. Apparently, the Traitor didn't get the message.

Something strange was going on with the seal. I could sense Sasuke's chakra, usually it was on the periphery of my consciousness. Buried under the friendly mass of Naruto's, and shoved aside by the firm madness of Kakashi-sensei's. It was always there. Like a little flame, dancing and shifting as it will. It was always present. Now, it was different, changing. It tasted sick, almost cancerous.

I was in for a long night.

.


End file.
